This week I got to give the sermon. I felt a little lazy with this as the guts of it I had re-used from 2018, but I was told it would be ok. I received a lot of great feedback from this talk, and I think it comes down the topic. As Christians we kinda know about eternal life (its in John 3:16) but we don't really dwell on it or think about the certainty and hope we have in this. Everything in the world accepts that death is final, but because Jesus rose from the dead, this is simply not true.
Below is my talk outline, I took out the bit in brackets at the start as it is kinda a red herring that I am not certain about. Also between the Tuesday and Wednesday talk I gave on this passage, Queen Elizabeth passed away, so her death was on everyone's minds, making this topic seem more relevant, and I got to add a story from this.
Today we are finishing off the Apostles Creed, next week we will still be looking at a key doctrine of the church, the Trinity, but for today we are arriving at the last two lines of the Creed, and it ends in triumphant hope.
We believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
While many different religions try to aim at some sort of life beyond this one, it is interesting to note that in Christianity the material, the physical things of this world are quite important.
I’m not sure if you noticed, but the whole Creed affirms the value of this world[1]. God is the maker of heaven and earth. The Son entered this material world by way of a virgin and took on a physical human nature. The Holy Spirit is present and empowers the church, the body of believers here in this world.
And then we get to the final victorious lines about the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
This is huge, for in this statement we take on the issue of death. Death is something we don’t think about - unless perhaps someone famous happens to die, and even in that sense we think of them and the family, and not much about ourselves. Today I want to think about our end and then what is afterwards. For Christians have a good answer about what happens after death, based on good evidence. We have hope for life, for eternal life that can never end or fade[2].
Another thing we need to remember, is we are talking about a real physical body that Christians will get, that will last forever. Heaven is not this ethereal floating on clouds place, it is real and solid. [[In fact the more I look at this, I am uncertain if those who are not found to be in Christ at the last day even get a body. In Luke 20:35 Jesus says those who are considered worthy will take part in the resurrection. But that may be for a discussion afterwards.]]
In this passage that we are going to look at, it seems to be for the Christians, for those who are in Christ. Those who will follow after Jesus, for those who will be made incorruptible.
The importance of the resurrection
I Corinthians 15 is probably my most favourite chapter in the Bible. I remember when I was working at ANU I used to meet with another Christian guy every fortnight after work. One time we were talking about what we do when we have doubts about Christianity. He was from Latin America, quite an emotional guy, and he said he looks to the cross, for there he sees the great extent God has gone for him. That on the cross he sees how much God loves him, for Jesus died in his place.He then turns to me, and I said it was the resurrection. I think it is an objectively true historical event that changes everything. Regardless of my feelings, or doubts, it happened, in the past and I can’t change that, and this gives me hope.
I think it was Karl Barth who said we live in the real work where Jesus rose from the grave.
I think the resurrection of Jesus is the nail that holds the picture of Christianity up. You take that out and it will all come crashing down[3].
As Paul says at the start of this chapter, if there was no resurrection then preaching is useless, your faith is in vain, Christians would be lying about God, we would all still be in our sins and we as Christians who believe this stuff should be pitied by others. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then Christianity is false and I don’t want a part of it.
Because Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, we can have confidence that we too will rise from the dead.
Jesus is described as the first fruit.
When Hannah and I got married someone gave us a lemon tree for our wedding. We looked after this tree, I put netting up when the frost came, but after a few years it never produced fruit, so I gave up caring for it and it still continues to grow and not give us any lemons. When we move houses, we didn’t notice till we had moved in that this land also had a lemon tree on it and in the first year we were there it also didn’t produce lemons. But the next year, it started to bud. I remember showing one of our parents this working lemon tree with the first sign of fruit on it.
It would have been ridiculous for them to then say next, “I wonder what fruit is going to come next”[5]. The lemon tree will only produce lemons. The next fruit after the first one also will be a lemon.
Jesus rose from the dead as the first fruit, and so we too will follow in his steps, afterwards.
How we will be resurrected
And so, from verse 35 Paul shifts gears a little. After dealing with the fact that the resurrection of Jesus happened, Paul now turns to how the resurrection will happen for us[6].And here it gets tricky. Because we all know what happens to bodies when they die. They only go one direction and its not a good direction. And what about those who are cremated, or decapitated, or eaten by animals? What happens with all those ancient bodies whose bones are no more? It doesn’t sound very reasonable at all. A modern-day sceptic may think that the Christian hope is built on nothing less than some B-grade zombie apocalypse.
Look at the seed, in order for it to become what it is meant to be, it has to be buried and die. Only after that does it get a new body - it becomes something more. If you had never seen a seed and a plant before, you will not get the connection, as they are so different.
But they are also similar. Everything the plant becomes is already inherent in the seed[10]. The plant isn’t the rejection of the seed, but the fullness of the seed.
And so, the Christian hope of the new body is like that. The resurrection isn’t a reconstruction[11], God isn’t going to try and somehow put all the pieces back together again like we are some sort of Humpty Dumpty. No, our body will die and then we will rise again in a new body, for the new creation… (Unless we are still alive when Jesus returns, then we are told that bodies will change “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye” v52).
You may have experiences like this too. In the last two weeks, I have had at least three or four old people tell me not to grow any older. Our bodies don’t do what they want them to do, they get sick, they break, get cancer and go weak.
But our resurrected bodies won’t be like that. They will be imperishable and glorious. Our current bodies are like our first parent Adam who was from the dust. But our new bodies will be in the form of our older brother (Heb 2:11, Rom 8:29) the man of heaven, we will bear Jesus’ image in our new never-ending bodies.
It’s like there is a dress code for the new creation. In order to be admitted, you must be imperishable. The new creation will never end, so you must be fit for that as well. You too must have a never-ending body.
Death is not fair
Be immortal. This is what fairy tales are about, and we use them as a form of escape because in the real world, we are always trying to avoid death. In 2013 Google said they are going to solve death for us[12]. It’s a little hard so give them a little time. As one children’s author said, the company who has read all your email hasn’t read a story. They have just cast themselves as the villain. Anytime someone in a story grasps for immortality it never works out well for them[13]. It’s foolishness, but death does this to smart people.And there 16 people[14] who have had their bodies cryonically frozen[15] in the hope to come back in the same body one day. These smart people don’t get it. If their plan even works out, at best, they will come back moral ready to die again. They are essentially defrosting a seed and not letting it grow into a plant. This is foolishness, but death does.
Death makes smart people say some foolish things.
When Hannah and I lost our baby at 20 weeks the nurse told us that he had gone to be a star in the sky. Nobody believes that. A star is a massive ball of gas millions of lightyears away burning at millions of degrees. No one believes a baby turns into that, the nurse didn’t and I definitely don’t because I am not 5 years old.
Death is an enemy. And I know it is not popular to talk about death because there is Netflix to watch, and muffins to eat and never enough time to spend with little children with big eyes[16]; but death and our own mortality is certain.
[I honestly didn’t make this next bit up!] Last week my daughter wrote to the queen. She has been writing to the queen since she was about five. In her letter last week, she said “It is truly amazing how long you have been queen. I think you will make it to 100, but you never know”
Truer words haven’t been said. You just may never know. I went to be on Thursday night reading on Twitter that the Queen was sick, and in the morning she was dead. Death doesn’t care about your social standing, your wealth or your influence. Death comes for us all.
If you are not prepared to die today, can I urge you to think long and hard on your eternity? You just never know. You could die before next Sunday. Our mortality is certain. What are you going to do about it? You can’t beat death; -- but as Christians, we know a guy who did, who gives us His victory.
As Christians, we aren’t strangers with death. Our God came down into the human predicament and experienced it first-hand and then rose again.
I was at a funeral for a close colleague of mine in 2018, she was my age. She went to bed on a Friday night and never woke up. Her sister gave one of the eulogies, she was 38 weeks pregnant and spoke of the plans she had with her sister after her baby would be born, and then in anger, she said, “It’s just not fair”. And she is right. Death is not fair. No matter what David Attenborough or The Lion King told you about the circle of life, death is un-natural[17]. We were not made for death. It is only because we share in the image of Adam that we die, but there will come a day when we will share in the image of Jesus.
Death is not fair and something inside us should cry saying that it is not right. And right now, we are not clothed in immortality, and death the great enemy is on the side sitting just off the stage ready to take us all.
Everything is going to death
A few years back I gave this hypothetical at Youth, which I stole from Rory Shiner[18]. Pretend you are an alien from the planet Neptune. You are doing a PhD in agriculture. You are researching if Earth is suitable for farming. You are sent to Earth to do some firsthand research but due to the planet alignments and your research funding, you can only stay from April to August. You end up landing in Australia near Canberra. You spend your time looking around, examining plants, looking for fruit, going to orchards and then the mothership comes and takes you home. What do you think your conclusion will be from your observation on Earth? The alien writes their PhD and says that Earth is not suitable for growing fruit, in fact, the place is dying. Everything you saw on Earth was dying, the fruit was not growing, leaves were falling, and everything was getting colder and darker. And from your observations, this would be completely true. Everything you saw tells you this. It is just going to death.
The world says it is life now and death later. You have to grasp and experience and try because it is death later. You only live once, there is a fear of missing out so you have to experiment now, and don’t worry about the cost. You need to write your bucket list, because when your dead, you can’t do anything afterwards. But this passage is saying “no”. There is death now and life after.
The great final enemy of death will be killed. Death will die and we will rise again. When we put on the imperishable then we can taunt dead:
“O death, where is your victory?God gives us the victory that Jesus achieved. Jesus rose from the dead and conquered sin and death and we get to share in that victory. On that day Death will not get a resurrection, we will.
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor 15:55-57)
Death is now on the losing side. Death tried to swallow Jesus but got swallowed. Death is now foolish. He is now a sub-contractor for Jesus doing resurrection agriculture.[20] Think about your body as a seed. Death is just planting bodies in fertile soil. What is the worst thing you can do to a seed if you want to get rid of it? You don’t put it in the ground! Planting a seed will mean it will become the fullness of what it is meant to be. We will turn into something that is imperishable and glorious. Our resurrected bodies will never end.
Christians now may mourn, but we do not mourn as those without hope. Jesus felt the full sting of death and came out the other end. Jesus clothed Himself in death, so we can be clothed in life. Death may hurt, but it is not fatal. We have hope. It may be Winter but Spring is coming.
Your work of the Lord is not in vain
With this, as resurrected hope-filled people we have some living and labouring to do yet. The chapter ends:Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Cor 15:58).The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work of all Christians, and this same power that raised Jesus will also raise all those in Christ. This can give us purpose and drive for us to live in the present. If you have been thinking about serving in some way, or inviting that family over for a meal, or meeting with that person you think you should, or wondering how you can help end sex-trafficking, or supporting mothers through difficult pregnancies. Then you should do it, because the resurrection tells us we can “take risks for God because the resurrection proves that God is behind us, for us, and with us.” As one author poetically put it “Our labor in the Lord in this life plants seeds that will sprout forth in the future world, so that what work we do in this age will flower in the coming age of the new creation.”[21] Our work in the Lord is not in vain.
A tale of two deaths
I’ll finish with this. A few years ago, I think in 2014, two people I knew died within weeks of each other. One was a legal academic who had been at ANU since the 1960’s. He was an expert in the Australian Constitution. At one time his text book was the definitive guide to the Constitution. When he died, he got a big write-up in the Canberra Times. I once converted him… to use a PC instead of a mac. That seems hardly important now.Another guy I knew died just after this academic. This guy was given two years to live but he didn’t make half that. During this time his body deteriorated and he lost the ability to walk. He was a Christian and in this time I received a few emails from him. He was in my Life Group. He was a guy who knew how to die well. A month before he died, he said in an email “at the base of God’s promises to His people, is God Himself, this gives us the courage and sense of purpose in using the gifts God has given us in building up his Church and the opportunity in extending His Church on earth until the Day of Christ’s glorious return”. He got it - God Himself is at the base of everything, and because of this we can use our gifts in extending His church.
When he died, he was not given a write-up in the paper, but I do know that his name was in the only book that mattered, the Book of Life. I have rock-solid confidence that on the Last Day he and I will rise in glorious bodies and walk.
Can you say Amen to that? The creed ends with an Amen. Can you say it, do you agree?
Amen. Amen.
Prayer
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the certain hope we have in our victory, which we have received because of what Jesus, the firsts fruits, has done for us. May we now live our lives in confidence, seeking to encourage, edify and evangelise those around us, to build up your Church, to make your name great, as we await the new creation with our new bodies, where we will be with you forever.Amen
[1] Benjamin Myers, The Apostles' Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism
[2] Michael F. Bird, What Christians Ought To Believer
[3] Jonny Gibson, Courage in Death (KEC2014)
[4] I took the “flip the script” line from Voddie Baucham (19th Nov 2006) The Reign of the King over Death (1 Cor 15:1-11) I downloaded this talk years ago but I couldn’t find it online anymore
[5] I think this point was taken from Rory Shiner (2011), one of his talks from Engage 2011 (Katoomba Easter Convention)
[6] Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT), p779
[7] Garland, David E, 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), p729
[8] Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT), Fee, p780
[9] Taylor, Mark, 1 Corinthians (The New American Commentary)
[10] Rory Shiner, from one of his talks at Engage (2011)
[11] Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Wise (1 Corinthians), p170
[12] Google vs Death, Sep 30, 2013
[13] N. D. Wilson (2013), Myth Wars: C.S. Lewis vs. Scientism
[14] Cryonically preserved people
[15] Not “cryogenically frozen”
[16] I think the small child with big eyes bit was a reference to a line in Sarah Kay’s poem If I should have a daughter
[17] I think I took this off Driscoll
[18] Rory Shiner, from one of his talks at Engage (2011)
[19] Hannah would like credit for this idea
[20] Rory Shiner, from one of the talks at Engage 2011 - I really liked this line
[21] Michael F. Bird, What Christians Ought to Believe. Pretty much that whole paragraph was taken from here.
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